The Story of My Heart, 1883

CHAPTER I: THE STORY OF MY HEART [published Oct. 1883] commences seventeen years ago. In the glow of youth there were times every now and then when I felt the necessity of a strong inspiration of soul thought. My heart was dusty, parched for want of the rain of deep feeling; my mind arid and dry, for there is a dust which settles on the heart as well as that which falls on a ledge. ... When this began to form I felt eager to escape from it, to throw off the heavy clothing, to drink deeply once more at the fresh fountains of life. An inspiration―a long deep breath of the pure air of thought―could alone give health to the heart. There is a hill [Liddington] to which I used to resort at such periods. The labour of walking three miles to it, all the while gradually ascending, seemed to clear my blood of the heaviness accumulated at home. On a warm summer day the slow continued rise required continual effort, which carried away the sense of oppression.... I began to breathe a new air and to have a fresher aspiration. ... Moving up the sweet short turf, at every step my heart seemed to obtain a wider horizon of feeling; with every inhalation of rich pure air, a deeper desire. The very light of the sun was whiter and more brilliant here. By the time I had reached the summit I had entirely forgotten the petty circumstances and the annoyances of existence. I felt myself, myself.

20 June 2018

Excavating the future


There's an excellent article in the 15 June 2018 edition of the Times Literary Supplement
by Jem Poster that examines Jefferies' influence on Edward Thomas'. Here's the beginning:

Excavating  the  future
Richard Jefferies and Edward Thomas: a spiritual affinity in poetry and prose

When Edward Thomas wrote his biography of Richard Jefferies (published in 1909) he was paying homage to a writer who had influenced him, at the deepest level, from childhood onwards. We should beware of over-simplifying the complexities of literary influence – shared concerns do not necessarily imply the direct passage of ideas from an older to a younger writer. But it’s clear that Jefferies’s works played a crucial role in Thomas’s intellectual and imaginative development, and that Thomas’s admiration for his predecessor constituted a form of filial devotion. When he discussed his early reading in the memoir posthumously published as The Childhood of Edward Thomas, he accorded Jefferies an importance allowed to no other writer mentioned in that context.